AfterDawn: News

Irish High Court ruling paves way for Internet connection suspension for pirates

A ruling by the High Court in Ireland has paved way for subscribers of Eircom's Internet services to have their service suspended for repeatedly sharing music illegally despite warnings. Eircom is the country's largest ISP, but the ruling is expected to have an effect on other ISPs in Ireland.

In a settlement deal last year, Eircom agreed to implement measures aimed at stopping illegal downloading, including handing over subscribers' identities when they are caught sharing files illegally. The Data Protection Commissioner had concerns about the settlement, questioning whether the measures violated rights of access to the Internet.



Mr Justice Peter Charleton rejected the concerns, ruling that the anti-piracy measures were lawful and compatible with the data protection legislation. He said that young people are now in the habit of file sharing that they appear to believe they have an entitlement to take what is not theirs.

"The right to be identified with and to reasonably exploit one's own original creative endeavour I regard as a human right," he commented, referring to what he said was a fundamental right to copyright in Irish law.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 16 Apr 2010 16:32

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• 5 comments

• Tristan_2

  First the UK now Ireland-sigh- next us(hopefully not) WTF is going on here?
  

  16.4.2010 16:43 #1

• beanos66

  I'd rather young people where stealing from lars ulrich than little old ladies.
  
  sorry was reading the daily mail yesterday(I didn't pay for it, it was in a waiting room, honest!)

  16.4.2010 17:12 #2

• av_verbal

  what process is there to protect against vexatious litigation, or is it guilty until proven innocent?

  17.4.2010 05:17 #3

• jos22

  full court hearing
  here
  http://www.courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/09859...2f?OpenDocument
  
  also this is not ireland adopting 3 stike policy.
  
  just eircom as part of the deal with IRMA.
  the Judge ruled that since IRMA will not know who is behind the IP address just Eircom. it is not breaching privacy laws.
  so IRMA will supply Eircom with ip adress of allege illegal p2p.
  eircom will then send warning to account who had that ip address.
  apparently the customer can contact Eircom and contest the complaint.
  
  Eircom can also disconnect you from the internet if they wish which they could always do to begin with.
  nothing in place to prevent you from switch ISP.
  
  other ISP are not affect but IRMA is demanding the follow eircom or else they sue (no surprise their).
  

  17.4.2010 12:12 #4

• madhippe

  well eircom is the worst internet provider in ireland in the first place i can't figure out why people use them they are way to expensive and have terrible speeds. well that won't bother me i use chorus/ntl cable and i have seen a ton of people changing over from eircom because they are terrible. this was supposed to happen with eircom cutting people off last year but eircom didn't go ahead with it obviously eircom are worried that they will lose a lot of customers if they try this crap. and thats whats going to happen people will just go with a different provider. eircoms business was sold 4 or 5 times already to outsider businesses in austrailia and other places. it is only a matter of time before this company breaks down and ceases to exist. so this is not damaging news at all for file sharers. chorus/ntl cable said a while back that they will not ever interfere with file sharers they plan to ignore the IRMA compleately.

  17.4.2010 13:46 #5